Mutant Effect: First Contact
by Takaiteishu Naruto
Summary: Almost a century and a half after the mutant "cure" was destroyed, two interstellar civilizations come into contact with space-faring aliens for the first time. Looking for Beta.
1. Chapter 1: First Contact

**25 March 2144, Shanxi-Theta Gate, **_**Gamma-**_**class research vessel**

"Sir, permission to speak freely," a young private spoke to the ship's captain.

"Granted, and how many times do I have to tell you to simply refer to me as Captain? Sir makes me want to look for my dad," the reptilian-looking captain said with an amused half-smile.

"Alright, Captain. Why exactly are we over here? We barely understand the Phase Gates and to be frank it's a miracle combined with blind luck that we were able to figure out as much about them as it is. Shouldn't we wait until we know more about them before doing experiments like this?"

"We wouldn't be out here if the Alliance would share their knowledge of the Phase Gates. Tensions are still high between the Alliance and the Clans. Quite frankly I think both the Clans and the Alliance should trade knowledge, the Clans genetics and the Alliance the Phase Gates.

"When should our relief supplies arrive?" the captain abruptly asked.

The lieutenant blinked before responding, "Approximately one hour. Food, better scanners, and some of Tanks just in case."

The captain nodded in satisfaction. Their food supplies were beginning to run low, one of the scanners wasn't quite working as well as they'd like, and they were close enough to an Alliance colony to make everyone nervous. After the Battle of Alcatraz back in the early twenty first century, tensions between humans and mutants were at an all time high. Things began to change about twenty years later when World War Three erupted. By that time all nuclear weapons had been dismantled, after all why keep nukes when you've got mutants with enough power to do as much if not more damage to the enemy while preserving their resources?

The end result after the war was the vast majority of Earth's countries being absorbed into the world super powers. When there had been over a hundred countries, after the war there were twenty. Around the same time, colonization of Mars and Luna began becoming a major focus of the space administration.

Then in 2060, almost thirty years after the colonization of Mars, ruins were found in the frozen southern pole. The technology salvaged and subsequently reverse engineered had allowed humans and mutants to finally separate. Humanity formed the Systems Alliance as mutants formed the Mutant Clans, the two then set out to colonize the stars. It was around that point when mutant abilities began to stabilize. Mutant abilities began to appear with less variability and within ten years all mutants born had powers in seven general types. These eventually became the seven Mutant Clans based on the combat roles their powers were suited for or what their powers revolved around.

In 2106 the Mutant Clans made a breakthrough on genetics research behind the Mutant Genome. The X-Gene, as it was commonly known, had been cracked and a startling and to some horrifying discovery had been made. The gene showed signs of having been engineered. Meaning that some time in humanity's past, they were genetically altered by some advanced race.

Debate raged across the upper levels of the Mutant Clans on whether or not to reveal this information to the public and/or the Alliance. Unfortunately the choice was taken away from them, news leaked and swept across known space life wildfire. Reactions were mixed, but eventually life settled into a peaceful, if tense, rhythm. Both the Alliance and the Clans colonized worlds, advanced research in their chosen fields, and kept a wary eye on the other group.

The Mutant Clans focused almost all of their scientific research into genetics while the Alliance branched out, though they had a slight focus on weapons tech and study of the gates in an attempt to figure out exactly how they worked. Some in the Mutant Clans suspected that the Alliance had actually figured out how to theoretically recreate the gates but lacked the resources, though most ignored them.

In another twenty years the Mutant Clans managed to form the first organic starship. The clans then began replacing all their technology with a hybrid of the technology they had before and the Alliance still used to this day and the new organic technology they had developed.

"Captain…we've managed to activate the gate. Do we go through or wait until relief supplies arrive?" the ship's pilot asked.

"We wait after all there's no sense in going unprepared. When the relief supplies arrive, we'll inform the Alliance base at Shanxi that we'll be passing through. They'll probably want to reinforce this system in case we find anything that isn't friendly," the captain responded.

"After all, it isn't like they've reinforced this system simply because a single Mutant Clan research vessel is here now is it?" the pilot drawled.

"Contact General Williams, he should know that we've managed to turn on the Gate."

"Yes sir. Tele-field up. Initiating contact wave. Received. Message start…now."

The captain closed his eyes as he felt the telepathic communications begin between himself and General Williams at Shanxi. When he opened them, he saw a man in his late fifties sitting behind a desk looking warily at him.

"What is it Captain Jackson?" Williams asked with a hint of caution in his voice.

"I just wanted to make sure that you knew that we'd managed to activate the Theta Gate. We'll be going through after our relief supplies arrive in about an hour. Standard policy among the Clans is to reinforce the system of a newly activated Gate until the team that first travels through returns or forty eight hours pass with no word. I don't know what the Alliance's policy is, but better safe than sorry after all," the reptilian captain quipped with a very slight smile.

General Williams was silent, making Jackson begin to feel slightly nervous, before responding, "I'll contact Arcturus Station to let them know, odds are they're going to want to send some ships of our own through with you. What's the precise reasoning behind the Clans' policy?"

"It's quite simple: we have no idea of what's on the other side. For all we know each gate could lead to the territory of a hostile alien empire. Forty eight hours was chosen because it's enough time to get through, scan the system, determine any possible colony worlds, and get back to report their findings. If the preliminary crew doesn't return in forty eight hours, we shut down the gate."

"And if the gate opens up from the other side?"

"Well no policy's perfect, but all the same, you should probably let your superiors know that we'll be going through shortly. Our relief supplies come with another research vessel that will stay here to provide feedback and to make sure that no data gained once we're through is lost."

The captain shook his head as the communications line was abruptly cut. He never could get used to the feeling of that happening. From what he'd heard researchers were looking for a way to make it so that ending telepathic communications didn't give a slight headache, but progress was slow. Natural telepaths were rare, but artificial telepathy wasn't able to do anything other than act as long distance communications. Even if it was able to read minds, specially designed mental shield were required in order for the communications to work.

"Tell all the crews that we'll be having an Alliance escort through the gate. We should also expect this system to see a burst of reinforcements soon," the captain told one of the crewmen as he headed to his quarters to get some rest.

**25 March 2144, Shanxi-Theta Gate, 2 hours later**

"Are all ships ready?" Captain Rodgers asked the image of his counterparts on the screen in front of him.

"Our ship is ready to pass through the gate. Our procedure upon entering an unknown system is to do a quick scan to determine what's in the system, planets, asteroid belts, any ships, etc. and then spend a day doing more in-depth scans of the planets to determine whether they'd serve any colonial purpose. After that we head back through the gate to give our report. Is that an acceptable game plan?" Captain Jackson responded from his bio-ship.

"Sure, our two frigates will go through first, followed by your ship, and then our cruiser will bring up the rear. See ya on the other side."

The two Alliance frigates, one heavy and one light, swiftly moved towards the newly activated gate. Captain Jackson heard some grumblings amongst his crew about the Alliance going through first, but paid them no mind. This was Alliance territory so they had the right to go through first. In addition should anything go wrong the Alliance would be the ones to lose the ships and not the Clans.

"Bring us through thirty seconds after the Alliance Ships go through the Gate," Jackson ordered his crew as they moved to their stations.

The massive research station released the two asteroids keeping it steady, and with a massive telekinetic push, began towards the gate just as the two Alliance Frigates passed through.

"This is it boys and girls," Captain Jackson whispered as the gate grabbed hold of the ship and flung it to a corresponding gate in a far off system.

The best way to describe being sent through a gate that Jackson could think of was that it was like a mix of getting pushed through a tube like putty and getting stretched out like a rubber band. In other words, it was really freakin' weird! Coming out of travel through gates however was like walking through a thin wall of slightly charged water as you body was restored to its normal mass.

Shaking his head as the last tingling left his body, Jackson barked out, "Start scanning the system. I want everything about this system known in two hours."

"On it captain!" Michael Moreau called out from the pilot's seat.

Moreau was a one of a kind pilot, he was one of the Psi Clan and one of the few telepaths. For unknown reasons though, he couldn't read the minds of people. What he _could_ do was telepathically interface with any of the Clans' ships, turning his already formidable piloting skills into near godly proportions. Some suspected that Moreau was capable of interfacing with multiple ships at once, though he just laughed the idea off.

"Scans are finished Cap: single blue dwarf star, a gas giant with sixteen moons, and five terrestrial planets. Scans indicate the terrestrials are dead and have no atmospheres, most of the moons are the same though two could form potential colonies. In addition there's also an asteroid belt twice as thick as the one back in Sol and two gates in addition to the one leading back to Shanxi," Moreau said, taking the captain out of his thoughts.

"Message coming in Captain, looks like the Alliance's also finished their scanning, patching it through," Ensign Alla Nat-Smith called out as the image of Captain Rodgers appeared in front of Jackson.

"Your scans of the system are finish I'm assuming," was Rodgers opening statement.

"Hello to you too, and yes they are. Any specific planets you want to scan?" Jackson asked.

"I think we both know that we're both going to want to scan the livable moons, so why don't we start there?"

"How about you take one while we take the other, after we've finished then we'll switch. That way we both get information on both worlds. Since you have more ships, would you mind scanning the asteroid belt for mining purposes, after all the Alliance uses metals a lot more than the Clans do so they'd be more beneficial to you anyway."

"Agreed. We'll divide the system in two, Alliance scanning the asteroid belt and everything past it, while you scan the gas giant and its moons in addition to the livable moons as you suggested."

**25 March 2144, Unnamed System, **_**Los Angeles**_** cruiser**

"Captain, why are we going with the muties' ideas? And how come they get to scan the habitable moons first?" one of the crewmen asked Captain Rodgers.

"No matter who scans what first, both the Clans and the Alliance will eventually scan the entire system thoroughly. Remember Private Carter, this is a scouting trip to figure out the basics of this system. What we find isn't going to mean a lot in the long run. The Clans don't have any colonies or major space stations near Shanxi, the Alliance is going to get everything from this system that they desire. Understand?" Captain Rodgers responded, a slight hint of warning in his tone.

Narrowing his eyes, Stefan Carter simply nodded before going back to work. Damn muties, they should just go through the farthest gates and never return. All the wishful thinking in the galaxy wouldn't get his work done though, so might as well get started. Bringing up the rudimentary map of the system formed from the scans that had been done. Zooming in on one of the habitable moons, Carter's eyes narrowed as he began to read the atmospheric data that the scans were giving.

High levels of oxygen, much higher than Earth but not so high that it'd be toxic, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, low-mid levels of ammonia; all in all breathable but not very comfortable without gene-mods to deal with the ammonia. It also was apparently about half-again thicker than Earth's atmosphere.

About two panels away, another crewman was checking different scans measuring for presence of water. Four major oceans, little to no salt content, about twice as large a volume of water as Earth. Given that initial scans put the moon at about half again Earth's size, the amount of water was surprisingly large.

"Any signs of life already present on the moon?" the Captain asked as the crew kept scanning.

"We know it's there sir, but in order to know more we're going to have to send out a crew to examine more in depth and possibly take samples," the pilot responded.

"Send one of the valkyrie shuttles with the eggheads down, have one of the frigates accompany them. We don't know what's on that world."

"Understood captain, sending orders, valkyrie shuttle _Eucalyptus_ leaving hanger, frigate _Thermopylae_ moving to follow, _Gamma_ research vessel moving towards the other habitable moon."

The Alliance ships moved quickly, scanning the system with practiced ease. The crews performing their duties with detached professionalism, managing to not let the fact that there was a clan ship in the same system as them distract them from their duties. About seven hours after their arrival in the system, Captian Rodgers decided to turn in for some sleep. He had been awake for sixteen hours before being assigned to keep an eye on the Clan ship going through the gate and was exhausted.

The moon that they had scanned so far had plenty of plant and animal life, though no intelligent life that they had recognized. The moon was on average more humid than Earth, and if it was to be colonized then careful construction would be needed in order to minimize impact and keep the hippies happy.

On the Clan research vessel, Captain Jackson was just waking up. With a sigh, he got out of his sleeper pod and headed towards the mess hall for some food. After breakfast he needed to speak with the teams that went onto the moon that they had been examining and see if they found anything interesting.

He was only halfway to the mess hall when a young scientist almost ran into him. Outwardly it was impossible to tell which clan he was a part of, the Beast Clan was the only one of the clans that the members could be identified on sight, but the fact that the scientist had walked through one of the walls identified him as a member of the Ghost Clan.

"Careful with the walking through walls, walk through the wrong one and you'll end up spacing yourself," Jackson warned the young man who nervously scratched the back of his head.

"Understood sir, but Dr. Tamase wanted to speak with you about some of the samples recovered earlier. Said that they might lead to breakthroughs in various projects back home," the young man said as he handed a datapad to Jackson.

Nodding in thanks, Jackson continued to the mess hall while keeping one eye on the datapad, literally, and reading the message on it. The details were vague, but apparently something about the DNA of the dominant life on the moon would open up new possibilities that had previously never been thought of before. He'd ask for more details after he had something to eat.

Looking at the slush that the food dispenser had provided, Jackson sighed before walking to a table to sit down.

"As far as we've come, cracking the secrets behind the X-Gene, developing organic technology, and we can't even synthesize food into something that doesn't look like it came out the opposite end," Jackson muttered as he sat down and began to eat.

"Tell me about it, I can't wait to get back home," Moreau said as he sat down across from the captain.

"You've got a wife don't you? Back on Yavin right?"

"I still say that whoever named the place watched too many old vids, but yeah I do. Moved there last year, but less than a week after we got there I got picked to pilot this baby. Fortunately military service runs in her family so she is understanding about sudden transfers like this," Moreau commented as he began to eat.

"Which clan is she, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Tank Clan, doesn't have anything except a slight healing factor that has her heal at about twice the normal speed."

Jackson nodded as he finished his slush, following the age old adage to eat military rations quickly to spare yourself the pain. Nodding good-bye to the pilot, Jackson put his tray in the bin for washing before heading towards the research labs. The mess hall and research labs were close together, then again considering that research labs covered most of the ship everything was close to them.

As he entered the one he was asked to meet the head researcher in, Jackson felt a slight smile spread across his face as he saw various scientists and researchers running around, talking to each other in excited whispers, truly enjoying their work. The best workers were ones that were happy doing what they did. Spotting the head researcher dashing to and fro between five different stations at just under Mach One, Jackson felt an amused smile spread across his face.

"Doc, what was it you wanted to show to me?" Jackson asked as he approached the excitable woman.

"OhCaptainit'!It'sfascinating!" the woman spoke rapid fire before the captain held his hand up to get her to stop speaking.

"Slow down Doc, I'm Beast Clan, not Speed Clan, I can't understand you when you talk that fast," Jackson drawled with an amused smile on his face.

"Sorry, I can't help it when I'm excited. Anyway, the DNA of the life on the moon is dextro instead of levo. Humans, mutants, dogs, coconuts, every form of life on Earth and every other life-bearing planet we've discovered so far has levo based DNA, life on this planet has dextro based DNA, meaning that it coils in the opposite direction. I can think of half a dozen projects where this single idea will allow for breakthroughs just off the top of my head.

"Do we know what sort of life is on the other moon?"

"Not yet, though I'm guessing that this means that this moon isn't viable for farming correct?"

"Not for growing food anyway, we couldn't digest it. At best it simply would pass through our systems without providing nutrition while at worst it would cause a lethally allergic reaction."

"But for new tech…"

"Not enough data to ascertain. We only got a chance to look closely at the DNA about an hour ago; we need more time to run experiments."

"Fair enough, I've got to get back to the bridge; we should be moving to scan the dead moons in about half an hour."

Jackson left the main research lab and walked into the elevator to the upper levels. The ship was grown in layers, with the bridge at the top, the mess hall and main research lab being in the middle, the hanger bay was at the bottom, sleeping quarters were scattered across the ship and almost all other rooms were for some kind of research.

Gathering his thoughts, Jackson stepped out of the elevator and with a deep breath walked over to his post directly behind and slightly above the crewmen handling scanners, maintenance reports, and pilots.

"Anything new?" Jackson asked as he stood in a relaxed military stance.

"Nothing extraordinary Captain. We've prepared to leave the moon's orbit and move on, the Alliance ships have scanned the asteroid bent and most of the planets beyond and are beginning to scan the moons that those planets have. Nothing from either of the two unexplored gates, though that's no surprise," one of the men scanning responded with a bored tone of voice.

"Just because we haven't found intelligent life, doesn't mean that it's not out there. This galaxy is so old that I'd be amazed if we are the only ones expanding. Also keep in mind, the race that allowed us to get off Earth in the first place. I don't like that we haven't found any other trace of them, it makes me wonder what could have brought them down."

"Perhaps their empire fell apart from the inside, we don't know that they were wiped out by war."

"All the same, the only traces of them that we've found are ruins, ruins that don't look like they were simply abandoned, and we've found nothing that could even possibly have once been an advanced space faring race. Face it; in our little slice of space, they're extinct."

Almost twenty hours later, the crewmen manning the long range scanners on both the clan research vessel and the Alliance ships detected a gate activating…a gate that led to unexplored space.

"Ensign, report!" Captain Rodgers hollered over the alarm that just went off.

"We've got hundreds of ships pouring out of one of the two gates that don't lead back to Shanxi!" the Ensign currently running the long range scanners shouted back.

"Report coming in from the _Sojourn_, they have a visual on the fleet leaving the gate and they don't look like a military fleet. The way they described it was it looked like 'a collection of almost any kind of ship you can think of' that has been repaired beyond recognition," another Ensign shouted over the alarm.

Rodgers bit back a groan as Captain Jackson's image appeared on the screen in front of him and immediately ask, "I'm assuming that you've picked up the fleet entering the system, what can you tell me?"

"Why don't you scan them yourselves and tell me what you know first?" Rodgers snapped back.

"You've got better scanners for stuff like this in addition to the fact that you've got more ships here than we do, not to mention that the last I checked you had a few ships near the gate these ships are coming through. Besides, this is bigger than either of us. Do you have a language pack onboard?"

"Let me guess, you want to send them one of our languages so they can understand us while we contact home and ask how to proceed. Am I wrong?"

"No. I personally would suggest using the Trade language pack, and I don't want to use one of our telepaths because we don't know how they'd react with alien physiology. After this comm. line ends I'm going to use the tele-communicator to ask the Clan Council how to proceed. Captain Jackson out."

Rodgers scowled before typing up a message to be sent with the language pack. After the message was sent to the massive fleet that had entered the system, Rodgers opened a secure line to contact General Williams at Shanxi.

**25 March 2144, Ast System, **_**Nana**_**, Two minutes ago**

"Captain, there are several ships already in the system positioned around the planets," Het'Gena vas Nana said from his seat in the ship's cockpit.

"Whose are they? The turians aren't due to patrol this area for another month and there are no worlds of colonial interest from any of the Citadel races and it's too far from the Traverse to be of any interest to them," Captain Bena'Zorah vas Nana mused.

"The one that we've scanned doesn't match any standard designs, meaning that it's either a custom ship or that of a new race."

"Hold on, one of the ships is sending a data package. Scanning for viruses…that's odd, it looks like a total listing of a language," Until'Henso said as he looked over the data contained within.

"…That implies that it is an unknown race. Contact the Conclave and Admiralty Board, they need to know that we may be initiating a First Contact," the captain told his communications officer.

"Understood sir."

After two minutes, the language pack had been decrypted and, upon determining that there were no viruses of any sort that they could identify, distributed amongst the ship's systems and the crew's omni-tools.

"Captain, we're being hailed, bringing it up on screen," Until'Henso told the captain as he walked up to stand behind him.

Bena'Zorah's eyes widened as two images came onto the screen, each one featuring a different looking alien unlike any he had ever seen. The one on the right looked almost like an asari, though with harsher features, a dark brown skin color, and strange growths coming from the top of its head and around its mouth. The one on the left looked basically the same, minus the growths and instead of dark brown skin had dark green scales.

"Greetings, I am Captain James Rodgers of the Systems Alliance and this is my counterpart," the brown skinned alien began before trailing off as the other one picked up.

"Captain David Jackson of the Mutant Clans. We are representing our factions until such time as official representatives can arrive," the green scaled one finished.

"My name is Bena'Zorah vas Nana and I am the Captain of the Nana. The leaders of our fleet will not arrive until about thirty two hours from now. Can your official representatives arrive by then?"

"We believe so, we will move our ships to the inside of this system's asteroid belt; can the rest of the system contain your fleet?"

"I believe so, it will be a tight fit but if not the rest of the ships will move to just outside the system."

"Out of curiosity, just how many ships are in your fleet, there are roughly six hundred now and more are pouring out of the phase gate as we speak," Captain Rodgers asked, the translator telling the quarians that phase gate was their term for the mass relays.

"I cannot give you an exact number, but the Migrant Fleet, as we are known, has roughly fifty thousand ships containing about seventeen million individuals."

Both alien captain's eyes widened in surprise upon hearing the numbers. Neither had heard of a fleet that large, but the scans showed that very few of the ships were combat ships, meaning that the fleet was a nomadic one, traveling from system to system gathering the supplies they needed before moving on. But for a population in so many ships that meant…

"The Migrant Fleet is most of your species isn't it?" Captain Jackson asked with a horrified tone in his voice as the implications dawned upon him.

Captain Bena'Zorah was both surprised and horrified. Simply by knowing their population and the size of their fleet, it was able to figure out that the Fleet was the majority of their race. He was just about to cut the comm. feed when Captain Rodgers began to speak.

"How it occurred is none of our business, but perhaps your fleet and the Alliance could trade with our end being ships? I will make the request when our representative arrives."

"Any sort of trade is up to our individual representatives; I will contact both of you once the representatives arrive to establish an agreeable meeting location. Until then gentlemen," Captain Jackson said before snapping into a stiff position with his right hand at the ridges just above his eye before his connection was cut.

Captain Rodgers raised the growths above his right eye before muttering, "Didn't think I'd get a salute from one of the Clans."

Before Captain Bena'Zorah could ask what he meant, the comm. line was cut. With a sigh, he started writing up a report to send to the Conclave and Admiralty Board. When the "Alliance" and "Clans" as they called themselves diplomats arrived, they would need to be ready.

**25 March 2144, **_**Ast**_** system, **_**Gamma-**_**class research vessel**

"Contact the _Xavier_, we need to update the diplomats on the Alliance's plan," Captain Jackson said as the tele-comm field was started up.

Jackson closed his eyes before opening them to see four people sitting in a semicircle.

"You have an update Captain Jackson?" one of them, a man in his late sixties with the symbol of the Tank Clan behind him, asked.

"The Quarians as they call themselves all live on what they call the Migrant Fleet. We don't know how, but their entire species has been reduced to seventeen million quarians on fifty thousand ships, give or take. The Alliance captain suggested entering trade with the Alliance offering ships. I don't know if the quarians or the Alliance diplomats will accept, but I thought that you should know," Jackson responded.

A woman sitting in front of the Magnet Clan symbol leaned forward as she said, "Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We should be in the system in thirty hours, we'll use that time to come up with a rough plan. Dismissed."

Jackson nodded before the mental image of him vanished from the room.

"So, what'll our move be?" Nati, the Speed Clan diplomat, asked as her right leg bounced up and down.

"I think that we should first see what the quarians lack before we commit to any sort of trade agreement. First see if we have anything to offer them before deciding on what to offer. We know that they are in need of ships, but quite frankly we don't know if they'll accept our organic ships and our nonorganic ones are all in heavy disrepair," the Ghost Clan diplomat, a man named Alen, pointed out.

"Then it is agreed? We will be open to trade, but first see what we can offer them," Ulysses, the Tank Clan diplomat, clarified.

"Agreed," the three other diplomats chorused.

Chapter End

AN: Okay, this is a plot bunny that evolved from several different stories that I had in the works and a new love of Alternate First Contact ME fics I've found. I've got a lot of plans for the future of this fic, but will always welcome suggestions.


	2. Chapter 2: Meet n' Greet

**427 March 2144, **_**Ast**_** system, **_**Gamma**_**-class research vessel**

Captain Jackson took a deep breath as a group of Alliance and Clan ships entered the system through the phase gate leading back to Shanxi. Communications between the Alliance ships along with his own and the quarians had been nonexistent after the confirmation that the diplomats were on their way. He imagined that messages were flying across their fleet about the discovery of two new alien races.

He just hoped that things continued as well as they had, the last thing that the Clans or Alliance needed was a war with an unknown enemy. The worst kind of war was one where you had no information. The Clans were in even worse a position than the Alliance in that regard, there was no way of knowing if the offensive Clans would be any effect against this new race should a war break out.

Captain Jackson shook himself from his thoughts as the Clan ships began approaching his own. Ordering Moreau to open the hanger, Captain Jackson swallowed his nervousness down as four of the seven most powerful people in all the Clans boarded his ship.

From what he'd heard, the Tank Clan Leader (TCL), Ulysses Willson, actually had one of the weakest forms of invulnerability ever encountered, but that was more than made up for by the man's legendary intellect and skill in the field of politics. It was rumored that half the concessions that the Alliance had made to the Clans was because of TCL Ulysses fooling them into thinking that the Alliance had come out on top.

The Ghost Clan Leader (GCL) Alen Netzen was similar in that his greatest attribute was his mind, but more than one attempted briber had been arrested because of the fact that the GCL had a recorder hidden from all detection methods on him at almost all times.

The Speed Clan Leader (SCL) simply known as Nati was unique amongst her clan in that she had far more patience than any other member of the higher ups in the Clan government. The Speed Clan as a rule of thumb were impatient than the other Clans due to their heightened perception times.

Finally, the last woman in the delegation, the Magnet Clan Leader (MCL), Monica Lensherr, direct descendent of Eric Lensherr the infamous Magneto. Monica had inherited the power of her ancestor, and the few people that had witnessed her on the very rare occasions that she utilized her powers believed that she surpassed the man that many called the Master of Magnetism.

Captain Jackson honestly had expected an ambassador at most, not four of the seven Clan Leaders. It was very overwhelming and humbling at the same time.

**27 March 2144, Ast system, Rayya, same time**

"This conclave is brought to order. Blessed are the ancestors who kept us alive, sustained us, and allowed us to reach this season. Keelah se'lai," Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay reverently spoke before the rest of the room echoed her last words with the same tone.

"First order of business, the two alien nations that we've encountered in the Ast System. What do we know about them?" Speaker Han'Vena vas Alarei asked the Admiralty Board.

"Upon arrival in the Ast System, scans revealed that there were three ships and one space station of unknown make already within the system. The station was in orbit around one of the moons of the gas giant closest to the star, and readings were difficult to achieve. We were able to tell that it was there, but nothing about it except that something about it caused it to light up like a gensha when scanned for life signs. From that we were able to tell that it rivals the Citadel in sheer size," Admiral Han'Gerrel vas Neema answered before Admiral Zaal'Koris vas Quib Quib continued.

"More extensive scans revealed the reason for the scans having trouble determining how many were aboard. We believe that the ship itself is at least partially organic in construction. How this is possible we don't know," Zaal'Koris turned to Admiral Daro'Xen vas Moreh as she stepped up to continue where he left off.

"From what the captain of the Nana has told us, the aliens on the station call their nation the Clans, and the other race call their own the Alliance. Images of the aliens from the communications with the captain on the Nana show that the two species look remarkably similar. Their body structure greatly resembles the asari, the member of the Alliance that spoke for their ships had dark brown, almost black skin instead of the shades of blue and purple that the asari have, growths that upon examination look a little like the fur common to several animal species and harsher facial features. The other alien that we have images of looked mostly the same, but instead of smooth skin had dark green, almost black scales and a strange frill on the top of its head where the other had fur," it was at this point that Rael'Zorah vas Rayya took over.

"The three ships that we believe are the Alliance's have some sort of tech that scrambles our scans, but upon further investigation we believe this is unintentional. We have witnessed one of their ships…warping for lack of a better word from the outer reaches of the system past the asteroid belt to the rest of their ships. Our belief is that the Alliance has developed short range space folding technology."

Multiple ship representatives began muttering to one another upon hearing that bit of information. If the Alliance has any other forms of technology like that, then trading with them would go far in benefiting the fleet. Maybe even allow them to take back the homeworld! In addition, the Clans had organic technology implying that they had extensive genetics technology and could possibly improve their immune system so they weren't always in their suits.

The muttering continued as a single marine entered the room unnoticed and swiftly walked over to the Admirals.

"What is it?" Shala'Raan asked the marine as he reached them.

"Captain Jenta'Varos of the _Uyesa_ just sent in a report, a pair of ships entered the system from beyond one of the unmapped relays and headed towards the Clan and Alliance ships, she believes that their delegates have arrived. We've also received word from the _Baktor_ that unknown signals are traveling between the station and the largest of the Alliance ships. Odds are that we'll be contacted to coordinate a meeting ground," the marine answered as he snapped off a salute.

It was at that point, that every quarian in the room paused in stunned silence as they felt something brush their minds at the same time as images of two different aliens appeared in the center of the room.

"Representatives of the Quarian Migrant Fleet, it is an honor to finally meet a sentient alien species. I am Clan Leader Ulysses Willson. With me is my Alliance counterpart Ambassador Esmeralda Lopez. We wish to determine an agreeable meeting ground for all three parties, and by mutual agreement have determined to allow you to choose a ship and number of representatives for each of us," the image of an alien with pale tan skin and white fur growing from the top of its head and the lower portion of its face that seemed to exude power spoke, bowing to the Conclave and Admiralty Board.

"We are willing to wait so that you have time to decide, when you have, please let us know," the olive skinned alien that looked like an asari said before the images faded away and the brushes on their minds ended.

Silence reigned for several minutes before one ship representative finally spoke, "What in the Ancestors' name was that?"

Several minds began racing, trying to figure out exactly what happened. Eventually, after a few minutes, Rael'Zorah spoke up to steer things back on track.

"We won't get any answers speculating on what sort of communications they used, for now we need to decide on a meeting place and who we will send as representatives. What do we know about the planets in this system?" Rael'Zorah asked the marine that had informed the Admirals of the pair of Alliance and/or Clan ships entering the system.

"Not much, this area of space isn't mapped beyond the fact that it's here and our scans have told us that, in addition to a gas giant on the interior of an asteroid belt, the system has five dead planets with little to no atmosphere. There are a total of three relays within the system, and of those only two have known destinations so logically the third leads back to their territory," the marine answered.

"So odds are that we'll be meeting their diplomats on either their ships or one of ours, go through the directory of non-live ships that should worst come to worst won't cripple the fleet if it is destroyed. Return when you have a list of ships that qualify."

"Understood sir."

As the marine left, Rael'Zorah felt a headache begin to form as the Conclave began to bicker amongst themselves about who to send.

**27 March 2144, **_**Ast**_** system, **_**Los Angeles**_** cruiser, four hours later**

"What's taking them so long?" one crewman mumbled under his breath as everyone continued to wait for a meeting point.

"Their decisions affect fifty thousand ships and seventeen million individuals, and if the Clan captain was right they're also responsible for their entire race. You can't blame them for not rushing. Any news from the Clan research vessel?" Esmeralda Lopez asked Captain Rodgers.

"Other than the fact that their shields haven't wavered in the last four hours, we've got nothing. Whatever they're doing, they're keeping quiet about it. Our own shields are remaining strong, and we just received confirmation that the space around the Phase Gate back at Shanxi has been seeded," Rodgers answered.

"Good, should this end up becoming a war, they'll have quite a surprise waiting for them when they go through. Captain, be honest. Looking at that, what do you think our chances are if war breaks out?"

"Honestly? Kenna hasn't reported back yet so this is just guess work based on their number of ships and ours, I'd say that if it was just the Alliance we'd lose a lot of people and ships but possibly pull through. If the Clans side with them we'd be trounced easily."

"Kenna?"

"Oh, the ship's intelligence. I asked her to get as much information on them as she could without being detected. The good news is if we haven't received any word from our friends over there they haven't found her. The bad news is that if she's taking this long either their firewalls are ridiculously strong or she's having trouble understanding their computers."

"Both actually," a female voice spoke up from the central computer in the CIC, causing both humans to turn towards the holographic avatar of the ship's intelligence. Kenna had chosen an avatar that resembled a cartoony version of the extinct Sabertooth. Rodgers refrained the chuckle he was tempted to let out every time he saw Kenna's chosen avatar.

"What did you find?" Ambassador Lopez asked Kenna.

"Well for one thing I managed to hack into their galactic version of the internet and download every language I could find. I've uploaded them to all of our ships in the area and sent a copy over to the Clan ship. In addition I learned that they were once part of a galactic government based in an Elder structure called the Citadel headed by a Council of the three most powerful species in Council space.

"They were kicked out about two hundred fifty years ago for creating a race of AI called the geth. Apparently they felt that a geth rebellion was inevitable and so attempted a preemptive strike. That backfired and they were forced off their home-world and every single one of their colonies.

"I've also managed to learn a lot of interesting information regarding a few specific Council laws. For one just about every form of genetic manipulation is illegal. Consider the very basis of the Clans' tech…"

"There's no way that the Clans would join them."

"Well there's more. In addition to genetic research, AIs are even more illegal than Segregation Laws in the American Union back on Earth. That leaves me in a bit of a pickle."

Before Rodgers or Lopez got a chance to respond, the Communications Officer called out that the Migrant fleet had sent a time and location to meet. Two hours, one of their ships that would be brought to just inside the asteroid belt, no more than eight representatives, in addition they were to wear…enviro-suits?

Feeling Ambassador Lopez's gaze on him, Captain Rodgers immediately gave the order to send the information to the Clan ship. He didn't know if the Clan ship was able to receive the message, and there was no way he was going to take any flack for not letting them know and possibly screwing this up.

"Ma'am, you should begin getting ready for the meeting," Captain Rodgers said to Ambassador Lopez as he finished giving orders.

Meanwhile the gathered Clan Leaders were discussing a plan of action when they got a chance to speak with the quarian representatives chosen. An alliance of some sort would be preferable, but at bare minimum a nonaggression agreement would have to do. Their deliberations were halted when they received the information regarding the meeting time and place.

"So it begins," Clan Leader Wilson muttered under his breath as he and the other Clan Leaders began preparing themselves for the meeting.

The small ship carrying the Clan Leaders and their bodyguards departed from the research ship and began their journey towards the coordinates given.

"Approaching destination, visual on alien ship, looks like the Alliance is already there," the pilot of the ship, a member of the Element Clan observed with feigned disinterest.

"Bring us in and latch on. We'll put on the enviro-suits and wait by the airlock," Clan Leader Nati said in her standard monotone as she and her fellow Clan Leaders stood up.

"Understood, beginning docking procedures."

To any outside observers, it would appear that a set of chitin spider-like legs unfolded from the side of the Clan ship and latched onto the sides of the quarian ship. As an airlock extended from the quarian ship, a small tube extended from the Clan ship and connected with the airlock.

From within the quarian ship, a woman watched with wide eyes at the Clan ship and softly muttered under her breath, "Keelah."

"Fascinating, isn't it?" Rael'Zorah asked his _iyena_.

"How could they create something like that? It breaks every known law of genetics."

"Well apparently every known law of genetics is wrong. Perhaps it is time for the galaxy to receive a new race that can shake up the status quo. It might be a good thing," one of the ship's engineers commented.

Both airlock doors opened simultaneously, neither side having been let in until the other arrived. A total of twelve people entered. All of the quarians were confused by the fact that the Clans only had four people, and none appeared to be armed whereas the Alliance had eight and only one appeared to be a diplomat with the rest being bodyguards in bulky armored suits. Rael'Zorah frowned behind his mask. The division of numbers could mean several things, one of which would be that the Clans didn't really consider the quarians to be any kind of threat, which greatly unnerved him, though he didn't let it show.

The two groups stood next to each other, briefly glancing at one another before one of the Clan diplomats spoke up, "You have already met Clan Leader Ulysses Wilson of the Tank Clan," the diplomat speaking motioned to the one on the far left, "Also here are Clan Leaders Nati of the Speed Clan, Monica Lensherr of the Magnet Clan, and myself Alan Netzen of the Ghost Clan. We form a council alongside Clan Leaders Richard Greyson of the Beast Clan, Luna Chang of the Element Clan, and Vincent Buhari of the Psi Clan."

"And I am Ambassador Esmeralda Lopez representing the Systems Alliance. With me are three War-Machine soldiers and four SPARTAN soldiers," the Alliance woman said while motioning to the armored soldiers on either side of her.

Rael'Zorah quickly looked over the gear that the War-Machine and SPARTAN soldiers had. The SPARTANs were apparently more lightly armored, but they were over six zennas taller than the tallest krogan he had ever seen. The War-Machines on the other hand, were armored from head to foot with what looked like possibly a skintight metal covering.

Forcing himself to focus on the matter at hand, Rael stepped forward and calmly spoke up, hiding the nervousness that he felt, "I am Rael'Zorah vas Rayya. With me are Calana'Zorah vas Rayya, Ute'Reeger vas Fetu, Vorn'Yar vas Fetu, and Beyo'Arn vas Yetsa. I represent the Admiralty Board and the rest of us represent the Conclave."

"Interesting, if I might be permitted to guess, from the sounds of it the Admiralty Board at least technically has total power but in order to prevent corruption and to make sure that every ship is represented a collection of representatives from every ship make most official decisions. Granted in regards to military matters the Admiralty Board would still need to take over," Clan Leader Ulysses continued muttering under his breath before Ambassador Esmeralda made a strange sound that broke him out of the trance he was starting to work himself into.

"If we could remain on topic," she drawled with a pointed tone, causing Clan Leader Ulysses to give a sheepish grin.

"Forgive me if this is a touchy subject, but when the captains of the station you have in the system and one of the Alliance ships spoke to one of our ship's captain, the two appeared to be of different species, and yet now if it weren't for the technology we wouldn't be able to tell you apart. Why is that?" Ute'Reeger asked, confusion smothering his words.

"It is quite simple; the only difference between the citizens of the Clans and the Alliance is a single gene. What is known about the X-Gene, as it is called, is that it was introduced to our ancestors roughly seventy five thousand years ago back when we were still living in caves. About two to three hundred years ago, the modified gene finally became active. People were being born with incredible powers of wild and vast diversity," Clan Leader Monica began before being interrupted by Vorn'Yar.

"It almost sounds like biotics, were these people surrounded by blue auras and have nodes of Element Zero in their bodies?" the biologist asked.

"No, perhaps a demonstration would be in order," Clan Leader Nati said before she vanished.

"Where did," Rael'Zorah began before he felt a finger tap the back of his suit.

Turning around to see Clan Leader Nati standing behind him with the edge of her mouth slightly curled upwards. Rael's eyes widened as he watched her move around the room at such speeds to be little more than a blur.

As Clan Leader Nati returned to her position amongst the other Clan Diplomats, Clan Leader Ulysses picked up where Clan Leader Monica left off, "As you can possibly imagine, ordinary humans were distrustful of these mutants, as they were called. Human nature is to fear that which it does not understand, and fear can so easily turn into hatred. Mutants faced extreme prejudice, and admittedly some did nothing but give reason to hate them.

"A little over a century ago, a mutant 'cure' was developed that suppressed the X-Gene. A very powerful mutant that called himself Magneto with an army of mutants attacked the facility where the cure was being developed before he was forced back and was injected with the cure. The cure wasn't permanent, but fortunately Magneto never returned to more than a fraction of his original strength.

"About one hundred years ago an Elder structure was discovered on the planet closest to our home-world and gave us the chance to travel the stars. Humans and mutants split off, just as mutant abilities began to stabilize. The Clans were formed around the seven general abilities that appeared."

"In any case, perhaps a trade of basic information would be in order at the very least to come from this meeting?" Ambassador Esmeralda asked, looking at Rael'Zorah.

"What did you have in mind?" Rael cautiously asked, no telling what they considered to be "basic" information.

"History, star charts, more languages, basic government structure, things like that. We'll download non-sensitive information into a series of data packs and trade them. Would you be agreeable to a time period to allow all of our governments to review the information?"

Rael paused to consider the offer. All in all this would probably be for the best, it would give both the Admiralty Board and the Conclave time to figure out just how to proceed and which group would be most willing to trade.

"Agreed, shall we reconvene in one month?" Rael asked, mentally translating the new method for determining time into one he was more familiar with.

"Very well, we'll contact you in twenty days to arrange a more suitable meeting place," Clan Leader Monica said before bending at the waist in a gesture that Rael assumed meant something of respect, but he wasn't familiar enough with their culture to know for sure.

**27 March 2144, **_**Ast**_** system, Rayya, four hours later**

"Admirals, we've received the data packages from both the Clans and the Alliance. Our best techs are scanning them for viruses and should be done within the astor," an older marine officer told the Admiralty Board as they considered everything that Rael had told them about his meeting with the Alliance and Clan diplomats, footage and audio included with the tale.

"Thank you Lieutenant, bring the data packs to us when you have finished scanning them. Take no shortcuts and no risks when scanning them. We know nothing about their files so there is no reason to put the fleet at risk unnecessarily," Han'Gerrel said as the other Admirals voiced their agreements.

"Understood. We are having some problems with the Clan data pack, but considering that their ships are biological it is likely that their methods of storing data are different. I'll have the men send you the data once it has been checked and translated."

The lieutenant saluted before leaving the Admiralty Board's meeting room. The five quarians looked back to each other in silence before Zaal'Koris broke the silence and asked, "So from Rael's footage, what can we determine about both sides?"

"Well the Clan diplomats entered without bodyguards but without any sort of tension that we could identify as to be nervousness. We simply don't know enough about their body language to tell. What to us could mean amusement could mean for them that their about ready to kill someone. We'll need to wait for the data packs to be scanned before we make any hard decisions," Darro'Xen pointed out.

"I know that no one wants to bring this up, but we should send a notice to the Citadel that two new alien nations have been found. If we don't then even more restrictions will be placed on the fleet, and we cannot afford that," Shala'Raan pointed out.

"True, as much as I don't like it we need to inform them. I just wonder how long it will be put off being given to the Council due to it coming from the Fleet. That may give us some time to organize an agreement with the Clans and the Alliance," Han'Garrel mused aloud.

The Admiralty Board deliberated for a little bit longer before the data regarding the Clans and Alliance arrived. Deciding to first go through the information on the Alliance, the Admiralty Board was shocked at what they considered basic military and technological information.

Granted in some areas the Alliance was woefully primitive, such as anti-grav, ship maneuverability, and shielding for starters, but in other areas they had accomplished things that no current galactic civilization had. The Alliance preferred non-mass effect based faster-than-light travel and only used the mass relays out of convenience. Their main FTL involved "folding" space to reduce the travel time between two given points. It wasn't the most accurate for shorter distances however, and for places with massive amounts of travel they used devices they called "way-gates" that were basically artificial, _stable_ wormholes that could transport an entire fleet across the galaxy instantaneously.

The only reason that they didn't have one in every one of their systems was because they required a great deal of resources and maintenance. So far they had constructed fifteen connecting pairs of way-gates. The way-gates required a specific set of codes to be sent and manually entered from inside the way-gate in order for it to be activated, and it could be closed at the flip of a switch.

Then the Admiralty Board looked at their basic military technology and strategies. Their main starship weapons fired beams of plasma and were working on shrinking the technology down for infantry use. Their current infantry weapons were using ballistic weapons that fired massive (compared to what they used) rounds accelerated to near the speed of light without the use of any Element Zero. In fact the only Element Zero that the Alliance used at all was simply to enable their ships to use the mass relays.

Their special forces, the War-Machines and the SPARTANs were also of particular interest in their origins. The initial War-Machine armor was based off of a fictional character from about two zenoks ago, and the SPARTANs based off of super-soldiers from a game published around the same time. The standard SPARTAN soldier had been genetically enhanced to the point that it looked like an unarmored SPARTAN could go toe to toe with a krogan. Add in the MJOLNIR armor that enhanced their strength, speed, and reflexes another tenfold and they were a practical nightmare on the battlefield. The War-Machine armor enhanced the physical abilities of the user less, and could be worn without breaking the bones of a human that hadn't been insanely enhanced, but enabled flight and contained almost as many weapons as one of the C-Sec armories!

Then there was what they called "digital intelligences" that as they read more about made them more and more cautious. Then they received the shock of their lives.

"Digital intelligences were once living humans?" Shala'Raan whispered in shock.

"I can't believe it; they copied the minds of their own and use them for the role of A.I. Fascinating! Hypothetically they could achieve a form of immortality simply by copying every one of their minds and then creating synthetic bodies to live in instead of flesh and blood bodies!" Zael'Koris exclaimed before rapidly sobering at the horrifying thought.

After a few moments of silence as they considered the massive implications of the Alliance's digital intelligences, Rael'Zorah finally spoke up, "We'll continue on the Alliance information later; for now, we'll look at the information provided by the Clans."

The first bit of information regarding the Clans was their biological-technological hybridization that formed the basis of almost everything they built (or would grow be a better word, each of them wondered). Their ships used the same space folding technology as the Alliance as their form of FTL, and for traveling within individual systems used artificial telekinesis to provide thrust and control. Their long range communications were duplicated forms of telepathy that required the mind to be shielding in specific ways in order for messages to be sent.

Their combat tactics regarding space battles were a major point of interest to them, their ships had very few weapons and almost no direct damage capabilities. Their ships however could become covered in a shell that was impenetrable to almost all weapons that they knew of, and their preferred method of combat focused on getting in close and firing swarms of pods containing shock troopers to take control or tear enemy ships apart from the inside. Each trooper had surgically inserted into their bodies what was known as a medi-com which would teleport them to friendly hospitals within a certain range should their vital signs reach critical levels, however that range was incredibly short and they hadn't found any way to extend that range.

The Clans themselves were named after what the powers that the members of that clan had revolved around. The Psi-clan was composed of mostly telekinetics with telepathy becoming rarer and rarer as time went on. The Beast-clan was composed of those that had "animalistic" traits and tended to have enhanced physical abilities, though not to the degree of the clans that specialized in them did. The Tank-clan was the most numerous and had two main powers with a third being very common, they had either some form of invulnerability or a healing factor and commonly had enhanced strength or some sort of natural weaponry. The Ghost-clan revolved around stealth and invisibility with a few rare members possessing what they called "phase-shifting" or simply put, walking through walls. The Speed-clan, as the name implied, had enhanced speed and reflexes. The Element-clan could manipulate energy or one of "the four classical elements: fire, earth, water, and air." The last clan, the Magnet-clan, had their eyes widening in a combination of shock and horror with their ability to manipulate and control metal.

"Is any of this even possible?" Daro'Xen whispered.

"I can guarantee that at least the enhanced speed is real, the Speed Clan Leader traveled fast enough that without looking at slowed down footage she was little more than a blur," Rael said as he looked over the rest of the data and compared them with the data from the Alliance.

"Look, from the information given neither side ever used ship based mass effect based weaponry. Their infantry weapons basically do the same thing without using Element Zero, but in regards to ships their shields aren't designed to stop for mass effect based weapons."

"KEELAH! Look at the information regarding the Clans' Special Forces!" Shala shouted as she continued to read ahead.

Each of the Clans had specially trained soldiers to serve as their special forces, but the Tank Clan had a branch simply called the Wolverines. Each member had extremely powerful regeneration and some sort of natural weaponry. Upon accepting entrance into the Wolverines, the entire program was volunteer only, they then had their bones coated with adamantium. All in all there were maybe twenty in existence ever since the formation of the Clans, and even then their regeneration had a tendency to expand their life spans to apparent immortality.

"They coat their bones in ADAMANTIUM! How could they find enough to even cover a skull?" Han asked the air.

Adamantium was the single most valuable and most rare substance in all of Citadel Space. In addition to the fact that no gun had been developed that could even dent a quarter centimeter thick sheet, Element Zero and therefore biotics simply rolled off of it without affecting it. The fact that the Clans had soldiers that _survived_ the procedure meant that their abilities were not related to biotics in any way. In the entirety of known the galaxy, there had been enough to cover at most half of a standard sized frigate, and this group had access to enough to cover the bones of ancestors knows how many individuals!

"We have to arrange at least nonaggression pacts with both sides. If for any reason war were to break out then the Fleet wouldn't stand a chance," Zael declared as the information finally sank into each of them.

"There's more, judging by their calendar, they were still using swords and metal armor a mere six hundred of their years ago. Looking at their system of measuring time, that was twenty _kuras_ ago. To have advanced so far so fast…" Daro finished with a mere whisper.

"You know what the Conclave is going to want, they are going to want to ally with both the Alliance and the Clans and use them to destroy the geth. In all honesty I very much doubt that they would. After all why would they? What possible reason could they have for going to war with a group they have no information about?" Shala asked, getting slightly hysterical as she reached the end.

"Shala, you're getting hysterical. We can't make any decisions just yet, we need to take time to let everything we've learned sink in and finish reading about both factions. I propose to end this meeting and continue four cycles from now, that way we have time to process all of the information that we have been given."

"Agreed, this is all a bit much to take in at once," Rael said as he stood up and stretched his various joints.

**5 April 2144, Arcturus Station, Confidential Meeting Room, 0800 hours**

"The votes have been tallied, the Alliance will send a diplomatic delegation the Quarian Migrant Fleet as soon as one can be assembled. Next order of business, how are we going to release the information that a space faring alien species has been discovered to the public?" the Head of Senate asked the holographic representations of the Alliance Senate.

"I move that we withhold the information from the public and military on a need-to-know basis until we know for sure if they are friendly or hostile. That way we avoid unnecessary panic and rioting. We will reinforce the Shanxi system under the pretense of an Elder artifact being discovered and the fleet is there for study and protection from pirates," the representative for one of the mid-colony systems suggested.

"I second the motion," the representative for the Shanxi system proclaimed as he stood up.

"Very well, the motion will be delegated to committee with the highest priority and will have a two day deadline. Senator Ober, choose three representatives to assist you in the committee," the Head of Senate said to Shanxi's representative.

"Understood sir, I will have the members chosen within the hour."

**5 April 2144, **_**Tiger**_** Station, 26 Astronomical Units from star Damascus, 30 parsecs Sirius A**

"Now that we have explained the situation, what shall we do?" Clan Leader Ulysses asked the group of people sitting in the room with him.

In addition to each of the Clan Leaders, there were also five others. Two were from the Mutant Clans' military, two more were from the Clans' Diplomatic Corp. and the last was from the Clans' PR department.

"Well I suggest that we reveal the information in increments, not all at once, but not entirely withholding it either. We choose choice pieces of information and let it trickle down to the bottom layers. Once we have determined whether they are friendly or hostile we can release more information," the Clans' PR representative suggested.

"Any objections?"

After none were forthcoming, Clan Leader Ulysses stood up and spoke.

"This meeting is adjourned."

ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ

AN: Finally, I was stuck at the point where the Alliance was going to decide on how to reveal the information about meeting the quarians to their public for over two months. Eventually a friend suggested deleting the last line or so and starting over and what do you know, I force the rest of it out in ten minutes.

And here are review responses for all to see:

_Kingdark_ – for the most part, yes. The fic is basically a Mass Effect fic with the addition of a new faction and massive altering of another one.

_Relvain Jenafuse_ – eventually, yes the Clans and Alliance will be going through a brief war with the Citadel races though that won't be until bare minimum chapter four.

_starspawn07_ – I realize that by the rules sent in the Marvel Universe the Mutant Clans wouldn't have happened, but you know what, I like the idea of mutants and humans branching off and having the X-Gene stabilize into a few patterns seemed like the best way to do so. If you don't like that explanation then here's the classic one: I'm the author so I can do whatever I ******* wish to!

_DaemonWelsh_ – Eventually Shepard will make an appearance, Alliance soldier for those of you wondering, and he will still become the first human Spectre and go after Saren. The main plot points won't change, but almost everything else will. As for the Clans biotech being viewed by the Reapers, they're a little like the geth in that they are outside the Reapers' plans. The presence of the X-Gene threw both the Clans and Alliance outside of the Reapers' plans so they will be treading extremely carefully around them. And as to the last question, it really depends on the strength of the individual and how they're used. In general mutants are extremely vulnerable to biotic powers, but their own powers tend to balance it out. If you have an adept flinging warps around it wouldn't matter if you can't hit the guy or he just regenerates.


	3. Chapter 3: Conflict Begins

**9 July 2144, **_**Ast**_** system, Alliance battleship **_**Vigilance**_**, approaching relay back to Shanxi**

Engineer Jacob Anders suppressed a smile as he listened to the quarian that he was teaching mumble under her breath as she worked on an old 734-_Inferno_ class plasma cannon. The 734 series had been discontinued from being equipped to ships for longer than he had been alive, but it was similar enough to the Mass Effect based projectile weaponry that the quarians and all other races that they knew of used that it was a good starting point for the trading to begin.

His urge to smile fell as the thought of the basis for the rest of the galaxy's tech came to mind. He, like almost every member of the Alliance, felt uneasy about basing their entire tech on the tech of a now extinct race. It was one of the few things that the Alliance and Clans agreed upon, they valued striding across the stars based upon their own knowledge, making their own mistakes and learning from it instead of on top of the remains of a dead race.

The last month had seen several changes within both the Alliance and Clans after coming into contact with the quarian Migrant Fleet. The Fleet had left less than a month after coming into contact with the Clans and Alliance due to their overall views on DIs being close enough to the Geth that most wanted nothing to do with the Alliance and the Clans' territory was almost intertwined with the Alliance's. All the same, a few quarians had chosen to go into Clan and Alliance space for their pilgrimage in the hopes of acquiring new technology for the fleet.

The Alliance accepted these quarians onto ships and did teach them how to handle themselves on them and repair said ships, but only on ships that were over fifteen years old.

With the new maps given to the Clans and Alliance by the Migrant Fleet in the data pack, after figuring out how to adjust them to work with more than just the phase gates, or mass relays as they insisted on calling them, colony expeditions were being formed for places that were unclaimed, and suitable for colonization.

"Excuse me Engineer Anders, could you explain this to me?" the filtered voice of his quarian student asked, bringing him out of his musings.

"What do you need explained?"

"I understand how the plasma is formed and contained so that it doesn't damage the cannon, but I'm having trouble understanding how the blast remains heated and stable through flight until it hits the target."

"Well for starters," Anders' lesson was cut off as the entire ship shook as a result of some sort of weapons fire.

Up on the bridge, the captain was shouting orders as the crew ran for their battle stations.

"All hands battle stations, we are under attack from an unknown enemy. This is NOT a drill, you understand that? THIS IS NOT A FUCKING DRILL!" the captain shouted over the ship's intercom.

"Sir, scans of the ship design attacking us matches profiles of turian patrol ships!" one of the several crewmen on the bridge shouted.

"Damn it, Garth see if you can hack into their systems everyone else get this ship heading for the phase gate!"

"On it boss man," the voice of the ship's DI spoke as another slavo of rounds slammed into the ship.

"And why are we getting hammered, why aren't the shields doing anything?"

"Sir, the rounds that the turian ships are firing are moving too fast for the shields to react in time; they're designed for plasma and slower moving objects not ship mounted railguns!" another of the crewmen stationed on the bridge shouted.

"How long before we can return fire, get the fold engines aligned, or get to the phase gate?"

"Sir, the Hellbringer missiles are locked on and ready to fire."

"Then what are you waiting for? FIRE AT WILL!"

"SIR, YES SIR!" rang out across the bridge and ship as missile bays opened and released their payload into space.

Each missile was a four foot long and one foot radius Hellbringer-class missile. The name was aptly given. The missiles had dumb A.I.s, able to make rapid adjustments on the fly but no real self-awareness, and were tipped by a foot long spike of synthetic-adamantium, allowing it to punch through anything except real adamantium. Once it buried itself into an enemy ship, the top portion of the missile would pop off, and the payload would be released, said payload being a thousand pounds of compressed plasma. Once the spiked cap was released, all of that pressure would cause the plasma to be released with an explosive burst. Contained within the plasma were heat resistant nanites that would begin taking apart everything that they could find within a certain distance of the ship that fired the missile, but would not replicate.

There were a total of twenty Hellbringer missiles heading straight for the small collection of turian ships attacking the Vigilance. The furthest cruiser was lucky, only two hit it. The largest cruiser was hit the worst, twelve of the missiles slammed into it and the other ships watched in horror as it began to dissolve where it was hit.

The turian ships abruptly fled, three of the four falling apart and decompressing before they reached the relay that they were trying to get to. The one cruiser that managed to escape returned to its base with horrific tales.

**9 July 2144, Turian Patrol base Ikya, 7 hours later**

Admiral Ruso Arterius was not looking forward to the report that he was on his way to make. He had been in the middle of a call with turian Councilor Metaes when the lone survivor from Patrol Entes returned with structural damage unlike any that had ever been seen before. So now that they had determined roughly what happened he had to contact the Council and tell them exactly what they had found.

Stepping into the room that contained the comm. to the Council, Admiral Arterius took a moment to calm himself before dialing the Council Chamber.

The three holograms flickered into existence, showing an asari, salarian, and a turian. Admiral Arterius saluted before launching into his report, "Roughly eight standard hours ago, the cruiser _Black Dawn_ returned from patrolling the edge of the Skyllian Verge where it and the patrol it was with discovered a ship with extremely low heat emissions almost the size of a cruiser traveling towards Relay 314 to unknown space. Patrol Entes attacked the unknown ship assuming that it was a group of pirates trying to activate a relay to uncharted space and dealt severe damage to it before the ship launched twenty missiles at the patrol ships that weren't slowed at all by kinetic barriers. The _Black Dawn_ was hit by two of said missiles, and that alone was almost enough to completely destroy it. Patrol Entes immediately fled from the engagement, but only _Black Dawn_ was able to reach the relay back here before it was destroyed.

"The local STG regiment examined the remains of the missiles that destroyed the other ships of Patrol Entes and found several startling discoveries. The front of the missile is a large spike designed to penetrate through a ship's armor before releasing. The spike is made out of what the STG believe to be an artificial form of adamantium."

"_WHAT?_" Councilor Mateas shouted in surprise upon hearing that.

"However, the artificial adamantium isn't an exact duplicate. It isn't as strong, and wasn't completely unaffected by element zero. In addition, the missile contained surprisingly high amounts of compressed plasma that burst open like an erupting volcano once the spike fell off the top of the missile. The component of the missile that did the most damage though wasn't the spike or the plasma. I'm forwarding an image of it to you now," Admiral Arterius said as he activated his omni-tool and pressed a few buttons.

Each of the Councilors looked down at their own omni-tools and brought up a picture of what members of the Clans and Alliance would recognize as a robotic lobster. As the Councilors looked at the image, Admiral Arterius continued, "That is an image of one of the millions of microscopic machines that were inside of the missile. STG members examining them have been unable to tell me how they work, but our best guess is that they are designed to take a ship apart once they leave the missile. Why they stopped we don't know.

"With all of the evidence at hand, we believe that we have encountered a new species that came from the other side of Relay 314."

Each of the councilors was silent for several minutes, making Admiral Arterius more and more nervous. He was beginning to be afraid that they would blame him for the new hostile race.

"What is your suggestion Admiral?" Councilor Tevo calmly asked.

"The way I see it we have a few options, first we could bulk up our defenses and send in small teams to learn what we can about them, their primary language, their homeworld, the size of their economy and military just to name a few. The advantages are that we lose very few soldiers, and once we know enough about them we can engage in active diplomacy as well as lowering the chances of us getting pulled into yet another war like the Rachni War. The disadvantages is that we're entirely on the defensive and don't know if they'll attack or with how much force.

"The second option is that we attack in full force. I have five dreadnaughts, sixty cruisers, and one hundred forty frigates here. I'd have to leave at least a third of them here to maintain skeleton patrols, but I'd feel comfortable taking one dreadnaught, thirty cruisers, and ninety frigates. We keep the pressure up until we can find their homeworld, then come to a settlement. We try to keep collateral damage to a minimum and engage civilian targets as little as possible. The advantages are that we keep war away from our doorsteps and give us control of the initiative. The downsides, we're automatically involved in a war and since we lack a great deal of information on them, we don't know what their full capabilities are.

"The third option is a combination of the first two. We fortify this side of the 314 Relay and send remote drones through to figure out as much as we can before sending our fleet through once we have more information. This has the advantages of both, and most of the disadvantages of the second.

"Personally, I favor the second. I'm not comfortable with just waiting and having a war on our turf. We don't know what weapons they possess and we don't know what they're willing to use. The first example that comes to mind are WMDs. We won't use them on civilian targets, but we don't know that they won't. If they attack us, based on that one weapon type alone, they're going to do a lot of damage. We have no way of knowing just how advanced they consider that weapon. For all that we know to them it could be considered outdated. Considering that, I don't want to leave things to the chance that they feel the same way about civilians that we do."

"We will consider your suggestion Admiral, for now reinforce the 314 Relay, but do not send anything except recon drones through. We will inform you of our decision in one Galactic Standard Day," salarian Councilor Haren said as the holograms shut off.

Admirl Arterius let out a breath of relief as the communications ended. He was sure that he was going to be blamed for this. That from the sounds of it that he wasn't was a great relief. Now he had to station ships outside the 314 Relay in suitable numbers.

**10 July 2144, **_**Tiger**_** Station, 26 Astronomical Units from star Damascus, 30 parsecs Sirius A**

"So let me get this right, we're going to Alliance territory," Private Pauline Cahabu asked Private Darin Carlson walking next to her on their way to the ship that they would be taking to the Shanxi system.

"Correct. Apparently the Alliance had an encounter with the turians, and they asked for backup should they attack. I've heard rumors that the Alliance and Clans will be accelerating the deployment of the teams that will be traveling to the Citadel," Carlson responded as they boarded the _Megalodon_-class battlecruiser. With rare exceptions, Clan spaceships resembled the animals that their class was named after. The _Megalodon_-class battlecruisers measured just over five kilometers in length, and packed enough warheads to level a city the size of New York back on Earth three times over.

"So how many ships are going to help out the Alliance?"

"Including this one and the seven dozen _Lamprey_ fighters on board? Last I heard a _Kraken_ defense station was going to wait out in orbit, but otherwise I don't know."

_"Attention all hands, ready yourselves for fold travel in T-minus thirty seconds,"_ a woman's voice spoke over the ships' loudspeakers.

"Looks like we boarded just in time," Private Carlson muttered under his breath.

Up in the ship's bridge, pilot James Anderson held in a smirk as his hands flew across the controls with practiced ease. James Anderson was one of the point five percent of mutants that didn't fit into any of the Clans. His particular ability was his body's rubber-like consistency. He could stretch, bend, twist, you name it. That the reason that he could handle a station that typically required two people, one hand and one eye would be at one station while the rest of his body would be at the other.

"All hands we are now folding space, please be sure to hold onto something secure and brace yourselves for one wild ride," James spoke into the intercom as to an outside observer the _Megalodon_ ship seemed to fold in on itself before vanishing.

As the ship reappeared light years away, James Anderson struggled to keep his jaw from reaching the floor as the object of his shock hailed the Clan ship.

"Clan vessel this is the _Executor II_, state your business in Alliance space or we will obliterate your ship," the cool voice of the captain of the nineteen kilometer long Alliance flagship spoke.

"_Executor II_ we were sent to assist in case of turian aggression," James responded, swiftly snapping himself out of his shock.

"I was expecting more than a single _Megalodon_. Where's the rest?"

"We were all that was ready… Forgive me for this but I can't hold it back anymore, the Alliance built Darth Vader's FLAGSHIP?"

"Impressive, isn't it? What other forces are the Clans sending?"

"A pair of _Kraken_ defense stations, three more _Megalodons_, and a _Wyvern_ battleship. Just how long has the Alliance been building that geek's dream come true that you're on?"

"All that I'm allowed to say is that Project GWL is still incomplete. Anything else is classified, especially for the Clans."

"We're here to help aren't we?"

"Touché, just get ready, I'll have my fleet coordinator send you details on where to position. Stay at least a hundred kliks from the phase gate, the area surrounding it has been seeded with _T101 _mines."

"Don't recognize the classification," James mumbled under his breath before speaking up, "thanks for the heads up _Executor_, receiving instructions, transiting to destination."

**10 July 2144, Turian Patrol base Ikya, one hour earlier**

Admiral Arterius looked at the message on his omni-tool. While the Council had decided to go with the third option that he had mentioned, they were sending a _Spectre_ to oversee the operation. Suppressing a growl at the thought that he was incapable of handling the situation, Admiral Arterius scrolled down to see who they were sending.

"Onak Sollus, don't recognize the name though it looks salarian. Great, not only do we have a Spectre, it's a salarian as well. Next thing you know they'll be giving whatever species is on the other side of the 314 Relay a Council Seat," Admiral Arterius grumbled.

"Is there a problem Admiral?" a voice from directly behind the Admiral asked, causing him to jump up is shock as he turned around while simultaneously drawing his sidearm.

And was almost immediately disarmed and had several pressure points pressed in his arm that resulted in said arm flopping uselessly to his side. The salarian that did so stood there with a blank, emotionless face before repeating his question.

"Onak Sollus I'm assuming," Admiral Arterius ventured while forcing his two hearts to calm down.

"Correct. My goal here is to ensure that we simultaneously gain information on this new race and cause as few deaths as possible. I will require a personal ship with advanced stealth drives. Can you provide?"

Forcing back a snarl, Admiral Arterius calmly responded, "Yes I can provide. I'm surprised that you don't want to be on the flagship."

"I work better on my own sneaking behind enemy lines rather than directing combat from a flagship. I will admit, the reason that I was chosen wasn't because of my skill in directing naval warfare. I won't be taking your job Admiral so you don't have to worry about that. The reason that I was chosen was because I specialize in gathering information in a multitude of ways."

"Fine, just be sure to send regular reports. I don't want the Council on my fringe because one of their pet Spectres was captured."

"If you don't hear from me at least once every three days, then assume the worst until proven otherwise."

The pair then continued down through the halls of the base before reaching one of the several hangers prepping for the eventual engagement on the other side of the 314 Relay. Supplies were being loaded into cargo ships to come in after the space just beyond the relay had been secured.

"Have any of your recon drones returned?" Onak asked Admiral Arterius as the pair approached the ship that would take them to the 314 Relay.

"One, from what we've been able to determine the species that is on the other side covered the area around the relay that ships would exit from with mines, turning the relay itself into a trap. The mines themselves are inactive until something gets close enough that triggers them, unfortunately we don't know what that trigger is. The current plan is to drag asteroids from the belt within the 314 system and send them through the relay first to eliminate as many of the mines as possible. Whatever's left should be deflected by kinetic barriers. Once the asteroids have gone through, we'll send in more drones provided by the STG to determine how many are left.

"If there are more than are comfortable, we'll repeat until we can go through without heavy casualties. From there we'll determine where the alien presence is strongest in that cluster and attack."

"A well thought out plan. I will take your best stealth ship and hopefully sneak past their lines and gather information on them and their society. Unless I come across something major expect updates on the schedule I gave earlier."

"Very well, I will have the _Barnok_ loaded into the hanger of the _Majesty_. We'll be pulling out in one hour. Can you be on board by then?" Admiral Arterius asked while turning towards Onak, only to see that Onak had vanished.

"…I hate it when Specters do that."

**10 July 2144, Shanxi system, **_**Executor II**_**, two hours later**

"Captain, we've picked up repeated signs of the _T101_ mines detonating just beyond the Shanxi-Theta phase gate. We have been unable to pick up any life signs before each detonation, leading us to believe that their sending drones through to clear out the mines," one of the several helmsmen on the bridge of the _Executor II_ called out from his station.

"So it will begin soon. Send out a general order, make sure that the Clan vessel gets it as well, be ready. Those turian bastards will be coming through soon enough," Captain Robin Wise ordered, staring at the large screen providing live image viewing from the cameras on the outside of the bridge, making it appear that there was a window.

"Yes my master," a deep, semi-mechanical voice said from the bridge's speakers.

"And cut that out, you are not Vader so stop acting like it!"

In front of the captain a hologram of the ship's DI appeared as his chosen avatar, an exact duplicate of Darth Vader, before speaking in a voice completely unlike Vader's, "Part of my contract upon being assigned to the _Executor II_ was that I was free to act as much like Darth Vader as I wished. You don't like it, you can suck my digital…"

Vader's head jerked up as something caught his attention. Holographic avatar vanishing, Vader began speaking through the bridge's speakers again, "Captain, they're here."

"How many mines are left?"

"Checking, out of the original few thousand I'm able to find fifteen."

"Damn, they got through those faster than we expected. Alright, everyone get ready. How are the other ships defending Shanxi?"

"Ships 0-5C through 0-5Z reporting ready," one technician called out.

"Ships 2-1A through 4-2A reporting ready," another called out.

"The Mutant Clans' _Megalodon _reporting ready," a final technician called out.

Captain Robin stared at the screen with narrowed eyes as she mumbled under her breath, "So it begins."

**10 July 2144, **_**Majesty**_** dreadnaught, just past 314 relay, same time**

"Admiral, we have passed through the relay and are heading towards the only planet in this system," one of the several operators on the bridge called out as he read the report on his monitor.

"Good, find the flagship of the planet's defensive forces and hail them," Admiral Arterius said while looking at the galaxy map in an attempt to discern where the relay led them.

"Spirits… sir, you need to take a look at this."

"What is it?"

"Well sir, we think that we've found their flag ship but…"

"But what? Spit it out soldier."

"It's even larger than the _Ascension_ at the Citadel."

"How larger?"

"Almost five times the mass sir. It has a triangular body and measures at best guess around forty-five _funtas_ long."

"Admiral, we're being hailed," another operator directly behind the Admiral called out.

"Good, bring it up."

"We can't sir, it's in a format that our computers won't read."

Admiral Arterius growled before barking out orders. "Send the prerecorded message; if we can't get their initial hail then perhaps we can get them to change it."

Hands and talons danced across holographic screens, loading the order for the opposing fleet to surrender and submit before the might of the Citadel fleet.

A few moments later, a repeated hail from the fleet surrounding the target planet arrived, this time in a format that the turian computers could recognize as an audio/video file. Bringing it up to replace the galaxy map, Admiral Arterius was surprised at the figure that appeared. It had a very vaguely asari form, wore an all-black body suit with a back fabric going over his shoulders and down its back and a round helmet with an intimidating face mask. The accentuated breathing furthered the intimidating nature and sent a chill through Admiral Arterius' body.

"Foreign fleet, I am representing the _Executor II_ of the Systems Alliance. You are invading our territory and are ordered to leave. Failure to follow this order will result in the destruction of your entire fleet. You have five minutes to comply," the deep, hollow voice of the figure declared before vanishing. There was one problem with the message that caught all present turians off guard; it was spoken in the quarian language.

"Admiral, your orders?" the helmsman asked after a few moments of silence on the bridge.

"Continue as planned, once we've gained control of their world we'll find out how they knew the quarian language," Admiral Arterius ordered, hoping that he wasn't making a big mistake.

"Understood sir, sending orders now."

Admiral Arterius took a deep breath as the frigates and cruisers in his fleet advanced towards the alien fleet. Hopefully these aliens didn't have enough surprises to overcome the sheer numerical advantage that the turians had. From what he could see of the preliminary scans, the aliens had at best three dozen ships. While it was intimidating that the majority of the ships were larger than any dreadnaught he had ever seen, it is possible that as a race they favored quality over quantity. If that's the case then at least the Treaty of Firaxen shouldn't be a problem.

"Admiral, our ships will be in firing range as soon as we pass through the outer asteroid belt," one of the men sitting in front of one of the ship's scanners called out.

"Good, any surprises beyond the mine field that they left?" Admiral Arterius asked.

"One sir, one of their ships, about five times as big as a regular dreadnaught, is emitting some kind of radiation unlike any we've any seen. I must emphasize that it is just that one ship, and it's the only one we can get an easy read on," another technician responded.

"Have one of the forward frigates see if they can get a visual on that ship when they're closer."

"Yes sir."

"Passing through the asteroid belt."

Admiral Arterius tensed in preparation, if any trap was going to activate, it would be here. Minutes passed without any hazard or ship receiving any kind of interference, and he allowed himself to relax. Apparently they either didn't think of using the asteroid belt or didn't have time to…

"Sir! The _Balksteer_ has reported boarders!" the _Majesty_'s communications officer called out.

"What? How did a ship manage to get close enough without any of our scanners noticing?"

"That's just it sir, the _Balksteer_ wasn't boarded by a ship, they're saying that the invaders are just appearing out of thin air!"

"That's impossible!"

**10 July 2144, **_**Balksteer**_** cruiser, same time**

"How much you want to bet there's some big wig on one of these ships claiming that this is impossible?" Wolverine Jason Kent asked his fellow boarders as he gutted another turian with the adamantium blades extending from his elbow.

"Pretty high sir, just save some for the rest of us," Tank Clan marine James Conner returned as he dug his fingers into the metal sheet that formed the wall and easily tore it off before hurling it at a group of turians.

"Ah well, we'd better find the bridge before the other ships in the fleet blast this one to smithereens," Speed Clan marine Maria Hernandez commended as she blurred past several turains, stealing weapons and slashing throats with her bowie knife.

"Infiltration teams, this is Alpha Squad, report," Jason said into his comm. before waiting for the response from the other teams that were teleported onto the turian ship.

"Beta Squad, I think we landed in one of the armories if the weapons here are anything to go by," the guttural voice of the Beast Clan leader of Beta Squad reported in.

"Gamma Squad, I believe that we're in the ship's bridge. We've got the ship's captain at metal spike point and uploading Jimmy now," the Magnet Clan squad leader reported.

At the bridge, Captain Vegrull Vallokius stood in sheer terror as these aliens uploaded something into his ship's computers. What kind of virus it could be he didn't know, and that combined with the fact that they had teleportation technology along with apparently several squads of super soldiers made him feel that the Hierarchy had made a terrible mistake in attacking.

"Ladies, Gentlemen, and Turians; I am pleased to announce that I have full control of all systems and am willing to vent any and all life support systems as I bring this ship to Shanxi in order to be studied by the government there. If you cooperate I will let you all live. If not then I will have our squads leave and then vent all atmosphere that this ship has. And remember: Big Brother is watching," a voice very much like the aliens in perfect turian came over the speakers all over the ship.

Captain Vallokius' plates spread in horror as he realized what the aliens had uploaded. They hadn't uploaded a virus, they had uploaded an AI. He had to find some way to get a message out to Admiral Arterius before the attack commenced. Looking at the sharp shards of metal hovering around him, it began to sink in that there was no hope of that happening.

**10 July 2144, space between Shanxi and the asteroid belt, same time**

"Vader, give the order."

"Yes, my master."

All across the fleet defending the human colony of Shanxi, every Alliance ship received a single order simultaneously. All across the fleet defending Shanxi, laser batteries aimed and opened fire at the invading turian fleet. Mass accelerated round shot across the space to slam into shields defending Alliance ships. Fighters weaved around each other and larger ships, weakening barriers and launching torpedoes. Unnoticed, a single ship slipped past all of the fighting and headed towards the planet that all of the fighting was over.

_'These aliens are more advanced than we first expected, I'll have to be careful,'_ salarian Spectre Onak Sollus thought to himself as he directed the small ship through the planet's atmosphere.

AN: Okay, I want to address a few things that were brought up in multiple reviews. The first being the military information that the Clans and Alliance gave to the quarians are decades out of date. Both the Clans military strategies have changed and advanced in that time period.

In addition, I am really looking for a beta reader for this fic. As it stands I am uploading these as soon as I finish them. And while that means that they're out sooner than if they had gone to a beta, there are still problems that I miss while writing. So if anyone is willing I'm accepting volunteers.

_Edit: _I'm putting this in about an hour and a half after I uploaded the chapter, but it occurred to me that I should give some more information about Alliance and Clan ship classifications so here they are.

**Mutant Effect Alliance and Mutant Clans Military Ship Classifications**

Fighter – 1 man ships anywhere from 5 to 15 meters in length  
Frigate – 80 to 100 meters  
Destroyer – 100 meters to 1 kilometer  
Cruiser – 1 to 2.5 kilometers  
Battlecruiser – 2.5 to 6 kilometers  
Battleship – 6 to 10 kilometers  
Dreadnaught – 10 to 25 kilometers  
Special – 25+ kilometers


	4. Goodbye

It occurred to me earlier today that it has been well over a year since my last update of any of my stories. A little over a week ago was the one year anniversary of the death of my father. The last year has been mostly focused on taking over and managing the online business he had so I haven't had much time for writing.

To be honest though, even if he hadn't passed away I probably wouldn't have written much. My interests have been steadily drifting away from fanfiction over the last few years and the fact that I've written barely half a chapter in the last year only reinforces this. So while I'll probably continue reading fanfiction, I'm declaring all of my stories abandoned. If anyone is interested in picking up where I've left off or rebooting any of mine let me know. Odds are I'll give approval.


End file.
